Aiea Ag center moving to Kunia

The Hawaii Agriculture Research Center has sold its Aiea Heights laboratory and headquarters and is planning a move to Kunia.

The 75,911-square-foot Robert L. Cushing Building now belongs to Arroyo Realty Partners of Los Angeles, which acquired it in early October for $20.6 million.

The research center -- a nonprofit group formerly known as the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, which was founded in 1895 -- has purchased more than 100 acres of Central Oahu agricultural land in Kunia for about $4 million from the Campbell Estate.

CUSHING BUILDING

Stephanie Whalen, the center's president, said yesterday the group sold the building to focus on its agriculture experiment station in Kunia. Eventually, it plans to build its own lab and office there.

"This is a very good site for Leeward agriculture," said Whalen. "It's some of the best ag land left here on the island of Oahu in terms of soil, location and water. The idea is to do our lab work and field work at the same site."

The center specializes in a broad range of agricultural research, from developing disease-resistant sugar cane to coffee breeding, papaya seed production, and corn seed production for local farmers.

The group built the Aiea structure in 1975 after being kicked out of its former facility in Makiki.

Whalen said both the Aiea and Kunia property sales closed on Oct. 5. Plans for the new research center in Kunia are still preliminary, she said. In the meantime, the center will lease its current space at the Cushing Building.